Too hot to work: assessing the threats climate change poses to outdoor workers

This report projects that climate change will quadruple US outdoor workers’ exposure to hazardous heat conditions by mid-century, jeopardizing their health and placing up to $55.4 billion of their earnings at risk annually without rapid action to reduce global warming emissions. Outdoor worker exposure to hazardous extreme heat can be reduced if we take rapid action to reduce global warming emissions and implement enforceable measures at the national level.

This report on projected losses in safe workdays and projected earnings at risk combines county-level projections of dangerously hot days from the 2019 Killer Heat analysis with county-level US Census data on the number of people employed in predominantly outdoor occupations, the type of work they do, and how much they earn. County by county, the authors calculated workdays and earnings at risk in the future from climate change, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations on reducing outdoor work based on temperature and humidity conditions.